Zia is 'physically, psychologically alright': official

Former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia, sentenced to five years imprisonment in a graft case, spent her night as a lone inmate of a renovated facility of the old Dhaka's abandoned central jail, where an official said, she was "physically and psychologically alright".
Today, authorities allowed Zia's younger businessman brother and four other relatives to meet the 72-year-old leader.
Zia was convicted by a special court here in connection with the embezzlement of 21 million taka (about USD 250,000) in foreign donations meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust, named after her late husband Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler-turned- politician.
The chief of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was sent to a renovated facility of the old Dhaka's abandoned central prison.

"She is physically and psychologically alright," a prison official told a private TV channel preferring anonymity.
But a senior BNP leader said, "She is in isolation", and alleged that her conviction was "part of a government blueprint to establish one-party rule".

Meanwhile, hundreds of BNP leaders and activists today staged protests in the capital and other major cities in protest at the verdict.
They also had scuffle with police but no incident of major violence was reported.
Officials, however, said they have detained several protesters during the demonstrations.
Yesterday, violence erupted in major cities across Bangladesh as news of the guilty verdict spread, with BNP supporters clashing with police and activists from the ruling party.

Police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators in the northeastern city of Sylhet. At least four people have been injured in the clashes.